I’m going in to my third week on the BSD 800, have lost 12.5lbs and am still suffering terrible thirst and dry mouth. Is this normal?

Hi Orgally, amazing start! Congratulations. Yes, I think it’s normal, but every individual varies. Are you hitting your 3 litres a day or are you still thirsty after that?
Maggie

Orgally, any chance you might be diabetic. Just a thought. Yes you need to drink plenty of water, I’m sorry to contradict you again Maggie but 3 litres is too much. We should all be aiming for 2 litres whether we are on a diet or flushing out our systems or whatever. 2 litres is the most you should have when drinking it, then your body takes in a further litre from the foods you eat. As Prof Taylor says in his video, water has two effects, drink too little and you die, drink too much and you die. Technically it is called hyponatremia or water intoxication. It is also important to spread the drinking throughout the day rather than in one big hit. The kidneys can only deal with 0.8 litre per hour. Sorry to be blunt about this but where did the 3 litres come from, it is not in any books.

It seems I have misremembered. I apologise for a misleading post. I’ll take care to source attribution for all my posts in future having been wrong twice today.
However I was not suggesting anyone drink 3 litres in an hour; I haven’t tried but suspect it would be very difficult.

Sorry Maggie, I dont mean to knock you down, just felt it best to clear that up. In fact the very first thing Barbara O’Neill says is if you drink between 3 and 5 litres of water you might die, and she mentions some experiment where people on a diet high in water actually died. My background is that I trained as a nurse although it was many years ago, but I dont think basic physiology has changed although, as we know. medicine grows and changes.

Hi Maggie and S-G! I wish I could remember why I upped water to 3 liters a day….but it is steadfastly eluding
me at the moment. I would dearly love to be able to site a reference! Just way too much you tubing over
the course of 2+ years 🙂 The only repercussions were that I did need to take a pinch of sea salt if I began
to feel a bit dizzy on getting up. However, I spread my consumption over a 15 hr time period, beginning at
6:00am and concluding by 9:00pm. It did seem to make a difference in the speed of weight loss when I
switched from 2 liters to 3. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. It also seemed to be very effective at releasing
fluid retention from vino, on the rare occasions that I indulged!

allie if you want to do more utubing look for hyponatremia. Symptoms are very similar to diabetes, dizziness, blurred vision, but also nausea and vomiting. The effect comes from three areas on the body. The water flushes out the electrolytes (sodium and potassium mainly) which causes the heart to flutter and can result in a heart attack. The brain becomes flooded with water and that causes the dizziness and confusion but can eventually burst the brain cells. Finally, the kidneys can only filter 0.8 litres per hour (which is why you shouldn’t drink it in one go) and can lead to overwhelming the kidneys, causing kidney failure. These are all worst case scenarios but worth knowing about. Having 3 litres might just have been okay as the danger levels are over 3lt but when we are told we have to have xxx amount of water it is not clear that some of this actually comes from our food. The other misunderstanding is that the water is in addition to other drinks. This is not true and you should be counting tea, coffee, juice etc in the 2 litres and leaving the other litre to come from foods.

My husband makes me laugh. When he reads something is good for him he has to have more of it. An example, when he read bananas were good for potassium levels he started eating 2 a day. Next set of blood test, doctors says, why are your potassium levels off the scale… Oops more doesn’t mean better.

Thank you, sunshine-girl, for all of this information! It’s extremely useful, as I do have cardiomyopathy… Since
I’m no longer seeking dramatic weight loss, I think I’ll be making some “adjustments” predicated upon your
post. Much appreciated 🙂

Allie, I know 3 litres is commonly mentioned in Jason Fung’s FB page, but I can’t recall the original source.
Maggie

OK, not too far to hunt.
“It is essential that you drink at least 2-3 litres of calorie free fluid a day or you will become constipated and get headaches ”
BSD page 143, Kindle locations 526 and 1514.
Maggie

Things like this can drive me crazy, Maggie! Just my propensity for being obsessive compulsive, I think! I
KNEW I read it SOMEWHERE 🙂 I’ll keep my eye on the scales twice a week, and see what happens! Thank you
kindly for hunting this down. What a relief! I’m not getting “addled” after all!

Me too, thank goodness I found it quickly or it would have been nagging away until I did!

I guess it varies for everyone although Sunshine Girls facts are certainly what come up when you google, so maybe the best to follow those safe levels unless you find you need more. I just drink so much water, I’ve never measured it but it’s easily more than 3 ltrs. However my kidneys used to be so prone to infections and this is what helps it. If I don’t drink enough I feel quite unwell. I tend to keep sipping throughout the day.
Having said that, I do counteract it with salty foods to keep my sodium levels normal.
I heard once of a tragic case where a mum drank so much (4ltrs I think, in a couple of hours) in such a short space of time that she did die, from brain swelling. However it’s interesting to note she was replacing most meals with soup or fluids, and I think most of us BSDers tend to eat more solid food as well as soup.

That’s all very interesting as when I read about drinking 2-3 litres of water a day I took it to mean of actual water ( to flush out the fat) no matter what else you were drinking or eating. Obviously I was completely wrong.

My knowledge of the water subject are not coming from Mr Google but from my background in nursing. Of course there are going to be exceptions to the rule. For example, we have recently experienced so very high temperatures and drinking more makes sense as does upping water intake during and after exercise. My point was that it does you no good to go overboard and try to have more and more of something because it is good for you. Aim to DRINK 2 litres of fluids be that water, milk, coffee, etc. Do not believe that tea and coffee dehydrate so you have to replace each cuppa with an extra half litre of water (I have heard that one), drink more when required like hot weather etc but do not drink it down in one go, spread it out and no more than 0.8 litres per hour. If you are drinking loads, or sweating loads, replace the salts with a good salt that has not been processed, just a bit on the tip of your finger. Certain bottled waters contain many minerals – they are usually the fizzy ones and taste a bit salty. My preferred mineral replacement is Andrews Liver salts – 1 teaspoon in water should do it. We all want to be fit and healthy otherwise we wouldn’t be on this site, just stay safe.

One of you said (I cant see the post now) they probably drink more than 3 litres. It is quite hard to drink that much water so it is a good idea to measure it out.

My doctor says, drink to your thirst level. Don’t obsess and your body is finely tuned to know when it needs water — thirst is your guide.

Thanks, Californiagirl, that’s sounds like something my brain can work with! 🙂